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Anyone who uses Facebook ads I hope I have your full, undivided attention! There are some serious problems with Facebook ads. And no, we aren’t talking about technical problems that their IT guy can fix by tweaking a code. We are talking about some serious presentation problems about the way these ads are delivered.
I’m making the assumption that everyone reading this article has a Facebook account and uses it somewhat regularly. And I’m also assuming that you are using Facebook for the same reasons I do–to connect with friends, share pictures, communicate with people. Oh and how could I forget–some of us now use Facebook to play games, such as Farmville which I get 500 cow requests for everyday.
Anyways, companies are getting smart to this huge collection of people of Facebook. First Facebook introduced Group pages several years ago, which allowed anyone to create a group and invite friends. Companies started to take over groups and before you knew it virtually every business out there had a Facebook group. Then Facebook announced “Fan Pages” which are used heavily by companies now to connect with their customers and build their client base.
The good part about fan pages is they are entirely opt-in, meaning the Facebook user clicks “like” on the company’s page and is now able to view their content, interact on their Facebook wall, and receives updates from the company via their Facebook newsfeed.
But all of this is very different from Facebook ads. Up until recently, Facebook ads meant you would write up a little bit of text, put together a picture, and send Facebook users to your company’s website. Think about the last 5 locations you used Facebook. Chances are they are:
- You squeezed in a few minutes to check your Facebook at home
- You pulled up your news feed on your smartphone
- You peeked at your friend’s status updates to see what’s going on tonight after work but shh don’t tell the boss you did this on the company computer
- You logged in at your friend’s house to show them a picture of your last vacation (seems like it was years ago doesn’t it?)
- Or lastly, you used your laptop to check in real quickly from the coffee shop, train, or some other public place
Now, some people might disagree with me, but in my experiences with Facebook marketing and sending people directly to your company’s website, it simply is ineffective. Why? Because in each one of these scenarios listed above, people are not searching for a product or service. Rather, they are simply taking a few quick minutes to check their Facebook and maybe happened to click your ad, costing you money on every click, went to your website for a few seconds, and then something else came up and they forgot all about you.
So Facebook has actually helped fix this problem, probably due to decreased advertising revenues due to lower costs per click. You can now actually setup your Facebook ads to have a “Like” button in them to have people like your company’s fan page instead of sending them to your website. Now you might be thinking that sounds dumb, but it is actually brilliant.
By sending people to your fan page and having them like you instead of sending them to your website, you are forming a bond with that potential customer that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Now every single time you post an update on your Facebook wall, a link to a blog post, or post a special promotion, it will pop up on that person’s newsfeed as a constant reminder of your company. So instead of paying 50 cents for that person to go to your website and forget about you, you are now paying 50 cents for that person to like you and constantly be reminded of your company.
If might sound like a small, simple change, but in our experiences with Facebook marketing it could make all the difference in your marketing campaign. So don’t run off and cancel all your Facebook ads, but rather convert them from linking to your company’s website to linking to your company’s Facebook page. I’m almost certain you will see a better conversion rate.